Bryn
Jones was born and lived his life in Manchester, England. He was the driving
force behind the musical project known as Muslimgauze. Bryn became ill
in late December/early January 1999, having contracted a rare blood fungus
that eventually took its toll on his immune system. He was admitted to
the Royal Northern Hospital and eventually developed pneumonia and had
to be moved to Hope Hospital Intensive care in Manchester. The kidney
machine that was stabilizing him had to be switched off and he passed
away.
Bryn was of course most known to the world for his political and musical
obsession, Muslimgauze. He worked tirelessly for 17 years defining an
entire genre of music all his own. The Muslimgauze landscape is lush,
densely populated, tense and beautiful, reflecting the Palestinian dilemma
and the Arab world, which were endless sources of inspiration for him.
Indisputably Bryn was the Sultan of a desert kingdom he alone created,
one grain of sand at a time.

His
discography dwarfs nearly every other musician in the world of electronic
music. Each album was like a region in his Emirate, each track, a vignette
captured on a postcard or an evening newscast telling the troubled story
of his people. Though born in the UK and certainly of English blood, his
people were of course, the Arabs, the Palestinians, and the oppressed.
Bryn fought for them with each album, drawing more and more people to
an awareness and a better understanding of their situation.

Bryn
boldly told the story of the Middle East, as much with words as with sounds
and concepts. Bryn single-handedly brought the Middle East to us forcefully;
sometimes it was unpleasant, violent and uncompromising, other times marvelous,
beautiful, exotic, and noble. His rhythmic brushes painted endless portraits
of mothers sobbing, markets bustling, old men pleading, young maidens
singing, and too many men tragically dying. Bryn brought the realities
of the Middle East to our ears, eyes, minds and hearts.

We
have lost so much, an entire genre is missing from the world with Bryn
gone. Consider how many people you know who have at least one Muslimgauze
release in their collection. People from all corners of the music world,
ambient, techno, idm, gothic, dub, trip-hop, ethno-tribal, industrial,
ethereal everyone has at least heard of him. The ramification of
his death will leave a deep chasm of silence where once was beautiful
sound.